I went for a quick look this morning. It's quite a nice facility, and I think it will attract a lot of new people to climbing. Even during my very short session at 8am a lot of people seemed interested in what I was doing. It's great that the people involved were able to get this funded and built, and I'm grateful for their efforts

But....

I think it's a real shame that with so much money involved and so much space available, the result is a small wall which doesn't seem to cater well to a big part of the potential user group. I get the point that it's not just for climbers, but I can't see why it couldn't have catered for everyone at that budget. At burnley many people start out on the vertical wall in their runners but soon buy climbing shoes and spend all their time doing laps on the 35deg wall.
The brunswick wall is quite low, so "up" problems are very short, and it's not that long, so when doing circuits I felt like I spent most of my time feeling my way around corners.

On a constructive note maybe adding a juggy circuit would help, both as a warm up and as a stamina option?

>-Catering for all? >The 3-8 year old kids seemed to be fine with it in their runners.>So were the 20-40yo climbers I saw using it.

I might not have been clear in what I meant about catering for all. A few climbers on this forum, and many people outside of this forum, have commented that they don't think it's a suitable as a training venue. I agree with them, and think that for the cost it should have been possible to have a venue that keeps "non climbers" and young kids entertained while also being a suitable for some climbing training at less busy times. Burney is probably skewed more for training than for the the general public, but I think it has stood the test of time. We'll see about this one.

>-Juggy circuits?>Yep there are quite a few. Orange is pretty damn juggy.

You might be right. There are certainly juggy routes, I just wasn't sure they wrapped the full way around the wall.

On 1/07/2015 jprockbelly wrote:>On 1/07/2015 Howsie wrote:>>Anyone have a picture of people using the wall? It would be interesting>>to see how its looking.>>not my image but here you go:>http://imgur.com/AAGkfxx>>technically not "using" the wall, but close enough

That looks like it was designed by a non-climber.....all the panel and angle changes don't seem to give much continuity.

On 2/07/2015 maxdacat wrote:>That looks like it was designed by a non-climber.....all the panel and>angle changes don't seem to give much continuity.

I would suggest numerous architectural and urban design styling ideas also have played their part. There was an article in The Age the other day that mentioned rock climbing walls as a fashionable real estate extra.

From what I understand the designer and builder did had done this thing before. But like I have continuously said the motivations for this was about building a community space, not a space for boulderers. All that said, I think it provides excellent training opportunities for those who live nearby. But Burnley is of course better.

I think what they have achieve is excellent. I especially enjoyed the Opera singer that came along and sung on the grass while the route setters were at work on Saturday.

On 2/07/2015 bones wrote:>Why can't it have been both? Boulderers are part of the community
Exactly. Boulderers are part of the community. So go enjoy the space for what it is. This was designed for the 99% not the 1%. Go to Burnley if you want a place for the 1%.

(BTW there are alot of climbers who had input into this and worked hard with the council to get it to where it is today. I was not one of them but I appreciate their work.

There were also artists busy over the weekend adding colour to the wall on the left. Most of these people I would presume are volunteers and at best their materials are covered by Council. The fluro "workers" moved out the previous week.)

>There were also artists busy over the weekend adding colour to the wall>on the left. Most of these people I would presume are volunteers and at>best their materials are covered by Council. The fluro "workers" moved>out the previous week.)

If you are on Instagram, check out @mike_maka. He is I think one of the 3 artists doing that work (with @otis_chamberlain and @bryanitch).

On 2/07/2015 bones wrote:>On 2/07/2015 patto wrote:>>On 2/07/2015 maxdacat wrote:>>>But like I have continuously said the motivations for this was>>about building a community space, not a space for boulderers. >>Why can't it have been both? Boulderers are part of the community

Community of what?
R U insinuating they count in a pointless debate about council approved short height pulling ?

it was half that.
we originally were looking for a site for as burnley type set up but couldnt find one. Burnley is sheltered and council wont tick the use of ply outdoors in an open space.

when we won the justice dept grant the big freak out was finding half a million bucks to do the plaza so we could keep the money to do the wall.
we wanted to have a steep wall and a face wall built off the two buildings but as both are marked for development we cant build near them. in the end a 13 x 8 m space was allocated but when you take out 3m fall zone (2.5m is the legal requirement but .5 saftey factor with proximity to seats) your left with a 7 x 2 M space to build the structure including footings to overhang.

i hope people understand its an urban precedent that will hopefully lead to more suitable sites and bigger budgets in locations where people dont have easy access to climbing or gyms. i think its going to be a great ad for the 3 gyms popping up in the area and a fun place to socialize with a beer 11 pm on a summers night.

780 k for an urban plaza is a really tight budget. The wall wasnt that much and we lost lots of budget to sub surface issues. remember they spent 1 million on a floating christmas tree in geelong and 250 million on a ferres wheel that died so this entire plaza is pocket change on the scheme of things. the price of the wall was around the same as your typical public art sculpture in a similar plaza, the 210 k from justice dept went way further than the wall alone.

brunny is just what it is and if the positive vibes keep flowing there can be more. if i had my way we would have just transported some steep blocks into a park, but then id be probably called an enviro vandal. as far as im concerned most dedicated climbers in the area (inc myself) will train at northside boulders and the public space will be a free social space for in between times. its just like cragging. you go where is suitable at the time.

it was really important to be a little conservative on the first one so there is a precedent that can be expanded without derailing the entire concept. inner city folk like myself are quite blessed for access to climbing but this is a big country (and world) and many dont have the access we do. As an urban precedent its important. theres a bigger picture developing it just takes time to get it. theres more to this than helping people tick bigger numbers (although there is nothing wrong with that either)

On 2/07/2015 gfdonc wrote:>On 2/07/2015 patto wrote:>> Go to Burnley if you want a place for the 1%.>>There's an aid climbing wall at Burnley now?>
& ajf replied:>I think that's the 0.01%... perhaps less...